Blood In The Cut
by TheSickenerHits
Summary: Vauseman vampire AU. Ficrec from my tumblr askbox. Vamp!Alex is chapter 1, Vamp!Piper is chapter 2. It's dark and smutty, bad language and sex found within. Reviews welcome - I haven't written anything quite like this before.
1. Chapter 1

**This was a prompt from a guest who reviewed my last fic. They were so insistent that I should write this that they even tracked down my tumblr ask box to make the request. So here we are.  
**  
 **A few disclaimers:**  
 **\- The person who requested this did not specify who should be the vampire, so I've written both: chapter one is Vamp!Alex, and chapter two (posted later) is Vamp!Piper. Pick your poison.**  
 **\- In terms of vampire lore, I'm keeping this classic BtVS: to become a vampire, a vampire must drink your blood, and then you must drink theirs. I guess it's like the Law of Equivalent Exchange, but with vampires instead of alchemists? There are some additional vampire abilities implied here, but nothing too explicit.**  
 **\- There's something inherently non-consensual about being turned into a vampire, and that bothers me. I discussed this with friends and they all suggested letting the "human" partner lead the siring, but I couldn't find ways to fit that into a oneshot without tonnes of exposition. So be warned - there's brief non-con, and things get dark. It comes with the territory. If you'd like a lighter vamp fic, head for chapter two.**  
 **  
Title is from a kflay track. Allons-y.**

* * *

Alex had been around for a little longer than she liked to think about, and despite her best intentions, nothing had been able to get rid of the unease that had seated itself in the pit of her stomach several decades ago.

She was growing restless, and knew she'd have to make a decision soon; she didn't like to take human victims, but she was running out of options.

The door of a nearby bar swung open, and Yazoo's _Only You_ spilled out into the street. Alex could remember when that had been in the charts, although in the grand scheme of things, surely that couldn't have been so long ago.  
The ever-so-familiar itching in her throat began to buzz like an entire hive as a group of young women followed the sound of the song into the night air, and a dull thudding at the base of Alex's skull bade her trail in their wake.

She hadn't fed properly in days, and time was ticking.  
To think she used to worry about her biological clock.  
She groaned inwardly. This was something a little more primitive - it wasn't about expectations or gender roles.  
This was about survival, about necessity, and if those women wandering unsteadily and uncertainly through the evening were her only way of seeing another day, then she'd have to deal with it.

* * *

After another bar, low lights and a drink she hadn't paid for, Alex found herself sizing up the blonde with the loudest laugh, which seemed to cover all manner of insecurities.

She'd put money on the woman having a small cliché of a tattoo somewhere on her body, and wondered - a little optimistically, she'd admit - if she'd ever get around to finding out.  
A quick encounter in a back alley was more practical, but it was altogether less enticing.

 _Fuck it._

Alex had done far worse in her years on this earth. She wasn't sure what she was so keen to stay alive for anymore, but surely a snack wouldn't hurt.

* * *

As her friends pared off, Piper found herself wandering the streets of New York alone.  
She was supposed to find it frightening, she knew, but she liked the quiet rumble of the cabs and the railway.

Recognising the next intersection as owning a road which lead to her friend's apartment, she turned the corner a little too quickly, catching a streetlamp in her haste that almost turned her back in the direction she'd come from.

She was sure she saw a figure not too far behind her, but when she squinted into the darkness, her follower seemed to almost melt away into the night.  
All that this confirmed was that Piper should have had one less tequila.  
 _One day_ she'd remember how many was too many. This was not that day.

Approaching the entrance to her friend's apartment block, she fumbled for the spare key in her purse, and once again was almost certain that the footsteps echoing her own didn't quite match up with the empty street behind her.

She'd be inside soon enough, _when she found the damn key, fuck,_ but the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end all the same.

Once indoors, she wandered the seemingly endless flights of stairs and labyrinthine corridors until finally finding the door she'd been after.  
In her haste to get inside and sit down and _take off her goddamn stilettos_ , Piper failed to note that the light was already on when she arrived.

Stumbling around as she kicked off her heels, she knocked a vase of slowly dying flowers off the table by the sofa, glass skittering across the floor like cockroaches.

Now bare-footed and bewildered, Piper stooped to scoop it up.  
She wasn't particularly coordinated when sober, and clumsiness was a forte of hers.  
Consequently, when the first sliver of glass burrowed its way inside the soft skin of her palm, she wasn't altogether surprised.  
At least, not until a stranger spoke from the other side of the room.

"You okay?"

Piper bolted upright, looking both sheepish and alarmed. "Hello?"

"Hey." A woman emerged from the darkness of the kitchen, a glass of red wine in hand. She seemed unperturbed to see Piper in an apartment that belonged to neither of them, and Piper had to commend her for that.

"This _is_ Polly's place, right?"  
"Yeah." The woman gave a single nod, smiling knowingly, leaning against the doorway of the room she'd been in before Piper's unruly arrival.  
"Are you a burglar?" If she had been sober, Piper's self-preservation surely would've added an anxious tremble to her voice. As it was, curiosity reigned instead.  
The other woman laughed. "No. I'm Alex, I live next door. Polly asked me to water her plants while she's on vacation."

Alex seemed so very certain of herself, and there was something about her manner that Piper found simultaneously calming and unnerving. She had been certain that Polly's neighbour had a different name, and she was even more certain that she would've remembered Alex if she had seen her in the building before.  
But she was drunk, memory impaired, and there was plenty she was willing to let slide tonight.

"I'm Piper, Polly's friend."  
"Hello Piper, Polly's friend." Alex smirked, and gestured with her wine glass in the direction of the vase fragments still scattered across the floor. "Looks like I've got one less plant to water."  
Piper blanched. "You think she'll be mad?"  
"Who?"  
"Polly."  
"Oh, yeah. Hard to say. I don't know how attached she is to keeping things _alive_."

Alex surveyed the scene with an air of detachment, and took a few steps in Piper's direction.  
"Do you live nearby?" She smiled as she asked, and the bright white of her teeth against the dark red of her lipstick startled the onlooker.  
Piper didn't intend to back away, but her legs definitely didn't want her to move any closer.  
"No, I have keys, and I was in the neighborhood. I was just going to get a glass of water, maybe crash on her sofa, but then I cut my hand on this glass, so…" Alex continued to move forward, and something about her made Piper pause.  
" _So_.. ?"  
"I thought I should clean it. Or something."

Alex set down her wine on the table by the remains of the vase, and took Piper's hand in her own. She took a long look at the injury before lifting her eyes to meet Piper's.  
There was something buried in the depths of her gaze that Piper couldn't quite pinpoint, and she felt herself growing warm.

"You want me to take it out?"  
Each curve of Alex's lips curled its way into Piper's cocktail soaked consciousness.  
"Take what out?" Piper had spent so long looking at Alex that she'd forgotten they were talking.  
"The glass, Piper." Alex's voice was low, and Piper liked the way her name sounded when it tipped off Alex's tongue.  
"Oh, the glass! Yes. Please." She could hear herself sounding over eager, but the whole evening was already a little weird: a beguiling stranger in her friend's apartment, carrying small-talk conversations she'd forgotten how to have.

In spite of her initial discomfort, Piper found herself warming to Alex.  
The woman was friendly, and when Alex sat down on the sofa and patted the empty seat beside her, Piper didn't want to turn her down.

"You want some wine?"  
"I probably should've had some before we started amateur operation hour, huh? Help steady the surgeon's hands?" Piper teased.  
Alex glanced up from the cut she was inspecting for the second time and gave Piper a wry smile. "You'd be surprised what I'm capable of." Piper's face flushed, but Alex returned her gaze to the injury. "My drink is just beside you. Help yourself."  
"Oh, I can get my own glass…"  
"I'd rather you stayed sitting for this." Alex licked her lips as she focused, and something about the otherwise unremarkable action fascinated Piper. "I don't know how drunk you are already, but this is in pretty deep."

Piper twisted away to reach Alex's glass of wine as suggested, doing her best to keep the injured hand perfectly still in Alex's grasp as she did so.  
"Will I live, Doc'?"  
Alex wanted to laugh at the irony of Piper's seemingly innocuous inquiry, but she resisted the urge. "For now."

Alex wondered why she was playing along with this; why she'd entered the apartment, or left the light on, or engaged in conversation in the first place.  
It had taken Alex a matter of minutes to circle past the younger woman, out onto the fire escape and into the apartment, with thanks to the literal 'come on in!' welcome mat.  
She had spied the calendar on the kitchen wall, the words ' _weekend away_ ' circled in red pen and spanning across the present until tomorrow.  
She had plenty of time, but she could've had Piper in seconds if she'd chosen to. So why was she bothering with the foreplay?

"Okay, I'm going to pull it out."  
"Normally people don't tell you when they're about to pull out." Piper quipped over the rim of the wine she clutched in her free hand.  
"Well, I'm not _people_." Alex murmured, taking the tip of the splinter between her nails and tugging it out in one swift motion. "And puncture wounds can be nasty."

Piper emitted a soft whimper as the splinter eased its way out of her palm, and Alex's head whipped up involuntarily, too attuned to noises like those to rein it in.  
Piper looked from her hand - now bleeding more profusely that she would've liked - to Alex.  
The brunette's eyes seemed darker somehow, and her grip on Piper's hand had tightened almost imperceptibly.  
The blood pooled in Piper's palm like rubies, glistening in the bright light.

Alex had no need for a pulse of her own, but was sure she could hear the sound of her heart thudding anyway, mouth dry with anticipation.

"Are you okay? You look pale. Are you bad with blood?"  
Piper's inquiries were so innocent, but Alex wanted to guffaw with disbelief.  
"I'm fine, trust me." She pushed Piper's palm back in her direction and rose to her feet. "We should get you something to cover that."

Her head was pounding, tunnel vision zeroing in on the cut.  
She had been so sure in her earlier years that the sight of blood should turn a vampire into the perfect predator, but instead she felt like a shaking mess.  
It had been too long since her last feed, and now she was paying the price.

Alex stumbled into the kitchen, randomly opening cupboards in the hope of finding some sort of first aid kit or medical box.  
Her focus kept being drawn like a magnet back to the stench of fresh flesh in the next room, but she couldn't - _wouldn't_ \- make a move.  
To lunge on this young woman she'd just helped seemed counter-productive, and her conscience crept over her like the cold sweat she was trying to ignore.  
Occupying herself as she tried to determine the best course of action, she aimed for the cupboards beneath the sink in her search for a band-aid, and heard footsteps behind her as she dropped to her haunches, busying herself with boxes and wrappers.

Piper cleared her throat over Alex's shoulder.  
Rising up, Alex turned on the spot. She came face to face with the blonde, less than an inch of space between them.

"I'm sorry, I just…" The younger woman broke off awkwardly, their bodies still pressed together.

Alex's back was against the worktop, hard edge digging into her spine, and she felt the sweat of her hands cold against the surface as she gripped it to steady herself.  
She could smell the blood on Piper, and the racing heartbeat she'd mistaken earlier for her own was now definitely coming from a fixed point beneath her acquaintance's ribs, buried below the breasts which were brushing against hers in a not-so-unpleasant way.

The buzzing at the base of her skull was becoming insistent.  
She needed to feed.

"Any luck?" Piper's smile was wan, but the way her eyes were fixed on Alex's lips told a different story.

Alex had to make a decision, and soon.  
She quirked an eyebrow and opened her mouth, but Piper beat her to it.

"Can I kiss you? Please?"

This was unexpected.  
Alex adapted.

Bridging the remaining millimeters between them, Alex took Piper's bottom lip gently between her teeth.  
She felt the slick warmth of Piper's cut on her bare arm as the woman embraced her, the softest of moans slipping from her mouth into Alex's.

Alex wondered idly for a moment where the wine glass had been abandoned, but was dragged back to the present as Piper took a step even closer to her, into a space that didn't exist, her thigh occupying the gap between Alex's as their hips met.  
She felt warm, and the tension that had been coiled in her stomach all night suddenly blossomed into something else.

She wrapped her arms around Piper's waist and spun her on the spot, lifting the woman onto the counter she'd just been resting against. (Sometimes it helped to be a little stronger than average.)

Piper's heels dug into her back as they pulled one another closer, kissing hungrily, as though their lives depended on it. She pulled back for a moment, her fingers tangled in Alex's hair and a look of wonder on her face.

"What?" Alex was bemused.  
"I am so drunk," Piper murmured absently. "And you are so hot."  
Alex laughed; this was turning out to be a particularly surreal evening.

"I don't usually just make out with strange women, I swear." Piper continued, although Alex wasn't sure why the disclaimer was necessary.  
"Are you calling me strange?" She trailed her hand up Piper's inner thigh idly as she asked, and Piper's legs spread for her willingly. "There are better ways to ingratiate yourself."  
"Not strange as in - " Piper's breath caught in her throat as Alex's hand reached her underwear, the pad of her index finger tracing the heat with the gentlest of touches. "Strange because you're a stranger."  
"Does that bother you?" Alex raised an eyebrow again, watching the rapid rise and fall of Piper's chest, ears tracking the sound of the blonde's nails curling against the kitchen worktop.  
"Not - " Another interrupted inhalation. "Not tonight, _fuck_ , stop teasing."

Piper's head tilted back as she exhaled, and Alex's eyes were drawn to the jugular pressing against her flesh, pulsing against the pale surface.  
She could smell the perfume clinging to Piper's skin, and Piper's own sweet scent buried beneath that, as heady a bouquet as any expensive bottle of liquor would offer.

Eyes now boring into the space where Alex's soul would've sat - if she still had one - Piper spoke again.  
"I need you to fuck me, Alex."

There was a sharp edge to Piper's voice, and if Alex hadn't been so pushed for time she would've loved to see how far down the rabbit hole she could've followed the demand.  
But as it was, the buzzing had become the soft tap of a sledgehammer against the inside of her cranium, and Alex's window of opportunity was rapidly closing.

In her haste, she had almost forgotten the hand still whispering against the fabric at the apex of Piper's thighs, and she pushed aside the soft cotton.  
Piper was wet and warm and ready, and her nails sunk into Alex's shoulders as Alex sunk into her, teeth meeting their mark at the same time.

* * *

Piper had been bitten during sex before, but this was very different.

The sharp sting in her neck was relentless, and her body battled between the pain and the pleasure in a conflicting rush of adrenaline.

Alex's fingers moved inside her, pressing deeper and deeper until her hips moved against her will. The brunette was pressed so closely to her now that Piper could feel the muscles working in her arms as they fucked.

There was a flicker at the back of her mind that told her alarm bells should be ringing: she should be running as far and as fast as her lungs and legs could carry her in the opposite direction to where this woman stood.  
But this was as effective as a moth around a lightbulb, the brightness of which grew dimmer with every passing second.

Ever so slowly, the edges of the world began to fold in around her, a paper girl in a paper world.

* * *

The grip on Alex's shoulders began to release a little, but Alex didn't notice: Piper tasted like lust and desire, a dessert wine that made her drunker with each sip, and even the aftertaste of panic fuelled the fire a little further.

Alex only knew there was something wrong the moment Piper's moans died on her lips.

Moving with a speed she was so sure she'd lost, she used both hands to steady the woman before her, who slumped against the tiled kitchen wall in a way that made Alex feel sick to her core.

"Piper?"

Alex had grievously wounded people before; it came with the territory.  
But that didn't mean she enjoyed it.  
Each and every death that came as a result of Alex's actions was always a horrible surprise.  
No-one has ever taught when when to stop, how to identify the borderline between life and death.

"Piper!"

 _Shit_.

Piper's breaths were shallow, rattling, and blood still poured forth from the open wound in her neck.  
As much as Alex wanted to return to the feed, it hadn't ever been supposed to get this far.  
She was just supposed to take the edge off, to tide herself over for a little longer until she could devise a better long-term solution.  
 _A snack_ , she'd agreed with herself. Not a three course meal.  
This definitely hadn't been part of the plan.

Stepping back from the scene, Alex pushed her hand through her hair, angry and scared.  
If she didn't want to be responsible for another sobbing mother - the fear that always loomed largest in her mind whenever she was the cause of a crime scene, _because even demons have demons_ \- she had one choice.

She'd heard about it, sure. Putting it into practice would likely be a little more complex. It wasn't like there was any kind of instruction manual for accidents like these.

Scooping Piper up from the counter, she carried her through to the couch they'd sat on before, laying her down along its length.

Pacing back and forth, she thought she could hear footsteps outside the apartment door, but she was too overwhelmed by frustration and fear to consider the implications of another intruder.

Should she do something to stem the bleeding first, or should she just do what she needed to?  
Alex dropped to her knees beside the blonde.  
She probably only had one chance to get this right.

She grabbed a shard of the broken vase from the floor, pressing it against the soft inside of her own forearm, drawing a short, ragged line.  
Blood blossomed and bloomed, and Alex held the wound against Piper's tongue, hoping that she had done enough.

Glancing up at the clock above the kitchen door, Alex sighed.  
Now all she had to do was wait.

* * *

Piper's head was pounding.  
Eyes still closed, she reached up to touch her temple - had she been hit? - but found her palm sticky and rough.

Her memory was fuzzy at best, and she felt hungrier than ever before, but couldn't pin down what it was that she wanted.

In spite of the haze smothering her like a fog, she felt wired, ready to go, inexplicably aware of her surroundings.

Even without the ability to see, she knew that a low, dawning sun was shining in through a crack in the curtains, a clock ticked to her left, and there was somebody sat beside her. She could feel the subtle pressure of their body against the cushions, the groan of the pre-owned sofa springs as they shifted in their seat.  
A floorboard creaked in an adjacent room, and a light switch was flicked on the floor above her.  
There was a cockroach in this building. More than one - multiple, a swarm - all scuttling down in the basement where they had no business being.  
Footsteps passed by on the other side of a wall, nearing the door, and the smell caught her by surprise. It was incredible, like a butchers but better, the meat market downtown on a Saturday and _holy fuck she had to find out what it was._

Her body moved of its own accord, eyes opening as she scrambled over the back of the couch to reach the glorious something on the other side of the door.  
A firm hand held her back, and she lashed out, spinning around to face whoever thought they could stop her.

The woman from the night before was there, looking bone-deep tired.

"Piper..."  
"Who are you?" Something clicked in her mind. "No, wait. I know you."  
The stranger sighed. "Yeah, kind of."

The headache was a rumbling inside her skull now, and Piper pressed her palms to her ears as though she could keep it out.  
The brunette's words were muffled as she lay her hands over Piper's in a gesture of compassion or affection - for some reason, Piper couldn't decipher the behaviour - but the way her mouth moved couldn't have been clearer.

"I'm sorry."  
Hands still in place, voice raised, Piper yelled. "What?"  
"I said I'm sorry."  
"What for?"

The rumbling sounded like a swarm of angry bees growing ever closer, and Piper craved the smell from the corridor like she needed a fix.

"What happened last night?" Her voice was growing louder and louder, as though she was trying to speak over the noise in her brain. " _Why does my head hurt so fucking much_?"  
"We need to talk." The woman was yelling now, and Piper could feel her blood hot and thick inside of her as her skin prickled with frustration.

The door behind them opened, and both women turned to face the sound.

" _Piper? What are you doing here_?"

Something ached in Piper's mouth, and suddenly the pain made sense, the buzzing given meaning.

Piper was fast - far faster than Alex could ever remember being - and Alex's own reflexes had calcified from lack of use, senses still duller than they should've been, despite her recent feed.

Polly hadn't stood a chance.

* * *

Alex flinched in the face of Piper's ferality, the carnal way she took apart the woman she had called a friend only hours ago.

Mere minutes passed before Piper stood again, swaying slightly over the body on the floor before her. She made a soft retching sound, arms wrapping themselves around her she bent double at the waist.

"Alex?" Her voice trembled, face curtained by her hair as she tried to avoid surveying the carnage that lay at her feet.  
"Yeah?" Alex tried to force the fatigue from her voice, but she knew what was coming. She only wished that neither of them had to go through it.

The blonde turned towards her, a shockingly bright crimson coating her mouth, dripping from her chin to smatter on the floor between the shards of glass they had abandoned earlier.  
"What did I do?"

Tears were rolling down her cheeks now, and Alex opted for comfort rather than callousness.  
Piper collapsed against her as she sobbed, legs giving out just as Alex reached her.  
Alex managed to get them both onto the couch, embracing her in the best version of compassion she could remember.

"It's gonna be okay, you just have to adjust..." She rubbed circles against Piper's shuddering back, stroking her hair with her other hand.  
Piper lifted her head, face filled with horror. "Adjust to what, Alex? I just - " She gestured vaguely in the direction of the scene behind where they sat, unable to verbalise her actions. "Oh, _God_."  
She dry heaved again, breathing shallow as she pushed her face into her hands.

Alex knew what she was expected to do; the consequences of her actions were not a mystery to her. She had made the decision to sire someone: Piper was her responsibility now.

"Piper," Alex draped her arm around the younger woman. "Look at me."  
Bleary eyed, Piper lifted her head. "What?"  
"We need to talk about what happens next."  
"What do you mean?"  
Alex reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "We can't stay here. We need to go."  
"Go where? What's wrong with me?" Piper's angered confusion had been replaced by an achingly sad sense of hopelessness. "I don't know what to do." Her shoulders heaved again.  
"You need to trust me, okay?"

Piper nodded slowly, eyes fixed on some crushed flowers from the vase that had somehow found their way into the middle of the room.  
The stem was withered and twisted, petals curling and frayed at the edges.  
What choice did she have?

Standing slowly, Alex glanced around.  
Piper had made a real mess of the place - and the sight of Polly's remains made Alex's stomach turn unpleasantly, hungrily - but they still had some time.

Grabbing two coats from the hooks on the wall, Alex covered the body with one, and passed the other to Piper, shrouding her carefully, sliding her arms into the sleeves inch by inch to cover the blood.  
She guided the younger woman to the door, taking care to steer her around the corpse dominating the doorway. She could've done with some time to clean up, but they couldn't risk staying here any longer. The fracas alone might have attracted too much attention already.

Closing the door behind them, Alex took Piper's hand. They'd figure this out.

"What now?" Piper's grip was firm, sobs subsiding, thumb brushing over Alex's almost idly, a subconscious motion.

It wouldn't be long before this death was a drop in the ocean, Alex recognised, bitterly. Something in Piper's behaviour was already calmer, more balanced than it had been moments before.  
Most of them moved on without looking back; Alex had always been an exception there. It looked like Piper would be just like the rest.  
When Alex didn't answer immediately, Piper rephrased, voice level and steadier now.

"Where are we going?"

Leading them both down the stairs, bursting out of the front doors and into the cold night air, Alex exhaled. She had no idea where they were going.  
At least now they had a lifetime to figure it out.


	2. Chapter 2

_This chapter is about turning the tables, in almost every way but literally._

 _Please read the disclaimers at the start of the previous story before you get stuck into this one, and don't take candy from strangers._

* * *

Piper was riding high from the Antifolk Festival, hair still in loose waves around her shoulders after seven days of indulging with millennials who thought they understood the definition of 'counter-culture'.  
Those she'd left alive presumably comprehended the concept a little more clearly now.  
But hey, at least the music had been good.

She swung by a bar on the outskirts of the East Village, knowing that soon the borough would be swarming with officers of the law, crawling through the crime scene she'd left.  
Adopting her best beguiling white Anglo-Saxon approach, she picked a persona and attracted the attention of the bartender.

"Hi!"  
"What can I get for you?"

He didn't seem interested, but that could change. She just needed a pick-me-up to carry her through the night, at least until she could make her way out of the state.

"I was wondering if you're hiring?" Fishing around in the bag she carried (for little purpose other than show), she dug out the resume she'd thrown together; if she could get herself a back-room interview, her hunt would be over before anyone knew she'd even been there. A CV was an easy route into the places she was less likely to be found.  
"No, I'm sorry." He shrugged.  
"Okay. Well," It was time to improvise. "Can I have a margarita then?"  
"That I _can_ do for you."

Although the insipid bartender was proving to be a dead end, someone's pulse had definitely picked up nearby.

Voices echoed from the table behind her - "Go, _go!_ " - as though somebody needed encouragement to act, and Piper felt the temperature of the room shift, a stranger coming closer to make a move.  
She could smell perfume and cigarette smoke, along with something a little more acrid, issuing away from the newcomer like sonar.

"It's a little cold out for a margarita, don't you think?"

A brunette swung into view, quipping in a way that Piper presumed could somehow be interpreted as charming.  
She wasn't sure whether it was the dip-dye blue at the ends of the woman's hair, or the oversized cross worn ironically around her neck that sold this woman as an easy win.  
Piper let the stranger slide the crumpled resume from her grasp with little resistance.

"Let's see this... _Steve's Greek Cuisine? Le Grand Fromage?_ Bullshit, bullshit. You need a lesson in fudging a resume."  
Piper employed the shrinking violet approach - cocky newcomers loved that crap. "Do you work here?"  
"Are you fucking kidding me? _Manager, Polly Harper_. No one named Polly Harper gets put in charge. Who is that really?"  
"It's my friend." Piper laughed, and it was almost genuine.

(Polly Harper was a young woman Piper had killed months ago behind the internet cafe she'd written the resume in.  
Her conscience had been on parole that day, and sometimes it was fun to play with your food.)

"You've never waited a fucking table in your life, have you?" The stranger brushed against Piper's arm, and it was unclear whether this had been purposeful or accidental.  
"No." _Another lie_.  
"So, Piper Chapman. 'A Smith grad with excellent listening skills, passionate about making diners feel good.' That sounds kind of dirty."

She winked, and Piper's stomach felt a flicker of something long since dormant.  
In another life - if this was the _afterlife_ \- Piper would've been enticed.  
The realisation dawned on her like the soft hush of ocean meeting sand, the slowly creeping feeling that she was being saturated by something other than cynicism.  
And this woman was kind of cute, she had to admit, despite her condescension.

The newcomer greeted the bartender as he set down Piper's drink, with the kind of over-familiarity that suggested she was in here way too often.

"You can put that on my tab." She turned back to Piper, who collected the cocktail from its neatly folded napkin. " _Safe, clean, and careful when handling food and drink_. I like that in a woman. What else do I need to know about you?"  
"Who are you?" Piper was genuinely perplexed. It had been a long time since somebody gave her reason to pause.  
"My name is Alex."  
"And what do you do, Alex?" _Aside from criticise resumés.  
_ "Besides make fun of strangers in bars?" Piper shrugged internally. At least Alex was vaguely self-aware. "I work for an international drug cartel."

 _Of course_ Alex worked for an international drug cartel.  
It wasn't exactly an excuse she'd heard before, but most guys would tell her that they were musicians, or stockbrokers - this was only a little different to their boring braggadocio, but it was at least more imaginative.  
She resisted the urge to ask if Alex's apparent occupation was the reason for the acrid undertone in the woman's scent, the acidic burn-off of overcooked heroin; having heightened senses was a gift and a curse, and this was one of those days when it was a little of both.

"Want to get out of here?" Piper wasn't interested in pulling any punches.  
If Alex was surprised by the swiftly turning tables, she recovered it admirably. "Sure."  
Piper shrugged by way of explanation, smiling in a way that she hoped could be classed as _cute_. "I'm a little short on time."  
"My place or yours?"  
Piper leaned in, breath warm against Alex's ear, lips ghosting across her skin. "Is there anywhere closer?"  
Alex's shoulders rose as she took a deep breath in, taking Piper by the hand. "Mine is ten minutes away. Is that close enough?"  
Piper grinned. "It'll do."

* * *

The way Piper looked at Alex - each casual glance beneath her lashes as the train rumbled along the tracks beneath them - made Alex's heart pound in her chest, and she finally understood how the term _hot under the collar_ could have a literal meaning.  
Piper definitely made her hot under the collar.  
And the warmth kept spreading lower.

The soft curl of Alex's fingers through hers made Piper wonder about the notion of companionship. There was something comforting, if a little pedestrian, about holding hands.  
She'd been doing a great job of ignoring how lonely she'd been feeling, because even vampires were people, and some old habits died hard. _No pun intended_ , she mused.

It was probably a little early in the evening to be thinking about a siring - that, and Piper had grown tired of her previous creations very quickly. They'd been impulse buys: one victim turned out of guilt, and another out of something mistaken for love. She wouldn't repeat those errors easily.

She mentally chastised herself; this was supposed to be a snack, not a confession of love. Turning someone into this curse resembling life was the closest she had to commitment these days, and she had only just met this woman.  
But, she conceded as she brunette squeezed her hand gently, Alex was attractive and confident, and she was in possession of something resembling a sense of humour.

Maybe she'd make a great lay, too.

Time would tell.  
If only she had a little more of it, Piper lamented.

* * *

Alex's apartment was surprisingly nice, and if Piper had been interested in real estate, she could've made a killing.  
 _Always with the jokes_.

Alex was surprisingly respectful when she closed the front door. Hesitant, even.  
As Piper took in the large, open plan space around her, Alex flicked on a small lamp by the entrance and hung her leather jacket on a hook on the wall.  
Then she offered to take Piper's too.  
It was a curiously chivalrous moment, completely at odds with Alex's past bravado, and the interest that Piper had previously been feigning was now becoming far less false.

"This is a very nice apartment." Piper stated. "You collect art?"  
Frames lined the walls of the dimly lit space before them, glass glinting in the streetlights reflecting through the windows, and Alex smiled softly. "I think to be classed as a _collector_ , you probably need to know about the work. I just know what I like."

There was something so satisfyingly simple about Alex's reply, and Piper echoed Alex's smile as she turned back to face the room.  
The impact of her earlier actions from the Antifolk festival started to creep in as she stared impassively into the dark apartment, settling around her shoulders like a yoke.  
Being a vampire didn't rid her of a conscience, it simply obscured it. Moments like this reminded Piper why vampires were so often depicted as dark and brooding, and she tried to shrug off her unease.

"Got anything to drink?"  
"Apart from the margarita you abandoned at the bar?"  
"Yes, apart from that."

Alex had paid for the drink and Piper had left it.  
There was a social faux pas in there, Piper acknowledged, but it was too late to address it.  
That, and she didn't want to.

The hallway lamp diminished the shadows only by the door, but Alex strode through the mostly dark room as though the lights were on - something Piper was also able to do, although not through familiarity - making a beeline for the kitchen space.

Tugging open the fridge, the light from which illuminated the food preparation area in a sterile blue light, she presented Piper with a chilled beer, condensation dripping from the glass bottle as it adjusted to the room.  
Closing the fridge door, Alex flicked on the light attached to the stove hood, which pooled only in the narrow vicinity surrounding themselves and the kitchen table.  
The woman didn't seem to be a fan of direct light, Piper noted. She guessed they had that in common.

"Cheers."  
Alex touched her own beer against Piper's, and the soft clink was muffled by the creak of a floorboard beneath Piper's foot, as she slowly closed the gap between them.  
"Bottle opener?" Piper asked demurely, Alex's eyes affixed to her lips as she spoke.

Alex reached past Piper, their arms grazing, and opened a drawer under the worktop to fulfill the request.  
She lifted the caps from each bottle, and placed the discarded items on the table behind them.

Piper took a sip of beer and another step, setting her bottle down next to the caps.  
She took Alex's bottle from her hand and took another drink from that, before placing it next to her own.  
Reaching for the table had brought her closer and closer to Alex, until now there was no distance between them.

Piper tucked her thumbs through Alex's belt and tugged at her hips, pressing her lips to the brunette's.  
Alex moaned softly into her mouth, unused to someone else taking the lead.  
It was a welcome change of pace: she didn't have to worry about overstepping boundaries if someone else was going first.

Alex ran a hand through Piper's hair, her other hand in the small of the blonde's back.  
When Piper bit her lip - not altogether gently - Alex felt warmth pooling in the pit of her stomach.

Pulling back, she found Piper eyeing her hungrily.  
"Bedroom?"  
Piper shook her head slowly. "No. I want you now. Here."  
Alex suppressed a shiver. "Show, don't tell."

There was something so very predatory in Piper's answering smile.  
She turned Alex around until she faced away from her, and slid her hand up Alex's thigh, finding a way beneath the dress, ushering aside the underwear she encountered to brush two fingers against her clit.

Alex let slip a soft curse, brief and whispered.

Piper pressed her free hand against Alex's stomach, holding her in place as she repeated her previous motion.  
She could feel the heat radiating away from Alex, and withdrew her hand, only to press her fingers to Alex's lips.  
Alex trailed her tongue across the soft pads, taking the digits between her teeth and biting down.

Piper's breath hitched, surprised at how her body responded to Alex's.  
It felt as though she was waking up, in all the best possible ways.  
This was definitely different.

Concerned that she was no longer directing the scene, Piper nudged Alex's feet apart with her own, and returned her hand to the warmth between Alex's thighs, sinking into her entrance agonisingly slowly.

Alex hung her head, moaning as Piper held her close.  
Her legs trembled, Piper's gentle movements shifting to something faster, more meaningful, less careful, and just the thought of coming from Piper's hand alone pushed her closer.

Alex had to hold on to the table to steady herself, knees weak as Piper set an unforgiving pace. She tried to focus on the feeling of Piper hitting each inch of her perfectly, rather than exploring the avenue of thought which lead to the realisation that she'd never been fucked quite like this, never been so willing to be taken.

She ached as Piper stretched and filled her, the soft curves of Piper's knuckles grazing against her entrance in a way that made her shiver and want to beg for more.

This wasn't the way Alex Vause had ever conducted herself. This wasn't _her_. Every barricade she normally built between herself and those she took home had crumbled when Piper had so effectively traded places with her, and for some reason, Alex hadn't resented the rare shift in power.

But as Piper brought her closer and closer to the edge of a precipice she was hurtling toward at surprising speed, Alex had little time for introspection.  
She felt the swell of the other woman's breasts press against her back, and Piper seemed to sense the closeness she craved.

The blonde held her tightly, fingers splayed across Alex's abdomen possessively, teeth nipping at her neck with a hunger poorly hidden.  
For Piper, this was rapidly becoming the most conflicted one night stand she'd ever encountered: as much as she had diverted from her original plan, she found that was becoming invested in the outcome of the evening.  
She actually wanted Alex to have a good time, and found herself becoming distracted from her initial intentions to feed by the smallest details - the dark curl of Alex's hair against her pale skin, the briefest glimpses of tattoos she'd see through the shadows as the brunette's body flexed in the low light.

The way that Alex tensed around her would surely give any lover cause to pause, even momentarily, her voice cracking as she mumbled Piper's name as though she was invoking the old gods, soaking Piper's slim digits as her back arched…

A broken cry split the air as Alex came, one hand finding Piper's on her chest and holding tight, the other pressing into the table until her fingertips turned white.  
She shuddered and gasped for air, the muscles in the throat silhouetted in the darkness.

Piper withdrew steadily, cleaning her fingers in her mouth before turning Alex slowly on the spot to face her, taking Alex's hands in hers.

"You okay?" _Why did she care?  
_ Alex nodded, speech laboured and thick when she replied. "More than. _Fuck_. Your turn?"

The single syllables made Piper smile unthinkingly, and she was almost annoyed at herself for being taken in by Alex's post-coital inefficacy.

"You not want a break?" _Stop caring already.  
_ Alex laughed, hoarse. "As long as the next one's horizontal, I'll be fine."

She took a long drink from her abandoned beer and passed Piper hers. The two stood in relative silence for several seconds until Alex's chest slowed in its rise and fall, and Piper could pull her eyes away from the carotid artery pulse which had effectively captured her attention since Alex had faced her.

"Where to?"  
Alex's lips curved upward at the enquiry. "Not far."

With an incline of her head, Alex lead the way down another darkened corridor, and Piper once again thanked her luck that she could see in the dark.

* * *

Piper quirked an eyebrow at the silk ties she found hanging from each of Alex's bedposts, but opted not to comment.  
This would be a conversation for another time.  
 _Assuming that there would be another time._

There was a pause as Alex closed the bedroom door behind them with a gentle click, and Piper took the opportunity to glance around, taking in the trapping of Alex's civilian, _human_ life - Piper could barely bring herself to summon the word from the depths of her mind, so far removed was what she desired in this moment from her own reality.

Aiming for distraction or diversion from the introspection, she took care to note the books scattered across any available flat surface, a small pile of vintage band shirts discarded on a floor in the corner, a single framed photograph on the bedside table...

Alex left little time for Piper to survey the rest of the room, as she approached the blonde and placed a hand on each side of her waist, chasing the curves of her body until her thumbs could trace the swell of her ribs.  
Their lips met gently but the heat grew, and when Alex pressed Piper back against the edge of the bed, Piper's calves colliding with the bottom of the bedframe, they allowed themselves to tumble onto the mattress.  
Alex fell between Piper's open legs, and they continued kissing as Piper interlaced her fingers around the back of Alex's neck, pulling her in closer until there was no distance left to close.

The beat of Alex's heart pounded beneath Piper's palm, and it only made Piper hotter, hungrier, the lines between her bloodlust and desire blurred beyond recognition, all second guesses about the nature of her feelings for Alex ushered aside.

"I want to taste you." The brunette's declarative slipped past Piper's lips and was pursued by Alex's tongue, leaving no question in Piper's mind that this woman should do precisely whatever she wanted in this moment.  
"What was it you said in the kitchen? _Show, don't tell._ "

Alex tugged at Piper's bottom lip with her teeth as they kissed once more, before Alex, heart in her mouth, nervous with anticipation, moved lower.

Piper's underwear was soft to the touch as Alex slid it down her bare legs, and Piper was tickled by the notion of being touched with compassion for the first time in many years.  
She was a sybarite by nature, and would think on the sensation of Alex's fingers trailing up her thighs for many moons to come.

Alex placed each of her palms squarely over Piper's hips, pinning her to the mattress with a surprising strength. It was nothing when compared to Piper's, but she appreciated the gesture all the same.  
She needed to be held, it transpired, jerking with surprise as Alex traced a broad stripe from clit to cunt with her tongue.  
Her fingers tangled in Alex's hair, her thighs hooked over each of Alex's shoulders, heels tucked beneath the woman's shoulder blades to tug her closer.

Alex smiled against Piper's warmth, feeling the blonde's need in the pressure she exerted into Alex's body, and she repeated her previous gesture in reverse, lingering lazily around Piper's clit with the smallest kisses. Piper tasted like a day at the beach - the sweetness of vanilla chased by the salt of the sea - and Alex knew then that she would spend hours between this woman's thighs if Piper had been so inclined.  
She began in earnest then, taking Piper's heat into her mouth, biting gently, pulling with her teeth until Piper's fingers in her hair became fists instead.

Piper did not say please, or beg, or ask for more.  
Her sounds of appreciation were soft, sincere, and only when Alex slid her tongue inside her did she swear.  
Her back arched away from the bed as she rode her lover's mouth, Alex's fingers digging into her sides in _almost_ the right amount of pain.

Minutes passed by seemingly in seconds, the heat within her core stoked to almost unfamiliar heights, legs trembling. She was close, so close, and it was only when Alex's nails broke the skin around her hipbones that she crested, toes curling and hands balling into fists around the bedsheets.

Alex wanted to pull back when she felt her fingertips blush red with Piper's blood, and the blonde cried out, but it seems a little anguish was the angle she'd been aching for.  
Despite her initial apprehension, there was something sexy about the stark contrast of the bright red against Piper's pale skin, and the sweet salt that hit her lips in the moments after.

Piper lay very still for a moment, mind racing. She felt Alex's mouth brush against each small crescent cut she made, the small incisions stinging blissfully before she began a slow ascent up the bed, moving carefully to accommodate Piper's motionlessness.

"You okay?"  
"C'mere." Piper's voice was soft, quiet, beckoning.

Alex leaned over Piper, mouths meeting as Piper kissed the blood away from Alex's lips, tongue seeking out the taste of herself that still lingered after their lovemaking.

"Fuck." She exhaled the curse against Alex's lips, the realisation growing that she wouldn't be able to deny herself for much longer.

Alex kept kissing her, and Piper's initial hunger crept back in.  
The sex had been a great diversion, and it had bought Alex a little more time, but not enough.  
Piper was almost disappointed it was over.

She rolled Alex onto her back, pinning her wrists above her head.  
Alex smirked up at her, anticipating their third round of the night, and moaned aloud when Piper lowered her mouth to her neck, lips grazing her jugular.

Her neck had always been a sensitive area, and the sensation of Piper's lips closing around it made her writhe.

The woman was strong, despite her lithe frame, and when her teeth pierced the pulsing vein running alongside her throat, moans spilled from Alex's lips.  
 _Fuck_ , it ached, and it burned, but Piper's hands encircling her wrists was somehow reassuring, stilling, and Alex was a little embarrassed to find her hips bucking against Piper's involuntarily.  
Her body hummed and buzzed, Piper's tongue lathing against the open wound, their bodies grinding together.

A calm settled over Alex as the heat built in her neck, vision dimming at the edges like a piece of paper burning, curling up into embers before crumbling into blackness.

She felt the press of Piper's lips onto hers, and then she felt nothing at all.


End file.
